A day in the palace A night in the city
by Yami81
Summary: Yugi is a 17 year old boy that is trying his best to take care of the children that are depending on him. With no parents and no jobs life is hard but good in a way that they have each other. Atem is the child of the pharaoh at the age of 19 he is sick of life in the palace and seeks to at least spend one day with the people of the city that he grew up never really knowing. Rated M
1. Chapter 1

When you look out into the town it's nothing but quiet people going about their lives like It was normal I sigh a bit sadly that life is like this. Everything is so boring I wouldn't even know how to start explaining everything. I walk down the halls knowing the turns like the back of my hand wishing there was something fun to do but knows that I have "responsibilities to this country as another long sigh escapes my lips. "I wish ra would grand me at least one day outside of these walls" I say looking at a large room before stepping in ignoring the guards my father has outside the court.

(With Yugi)

I walk down the streets looking for any work I can get once I turned 17 it was my job to help take care of my small family they weren't blood but I would ever turn them away. I come up to a small shop the keeper eyes me. "What do you want boy!?" he says half ignoring me half listening to me. "I…I" I stammer a bit but get what courage I have and look back at him "I need a job please, I can work really hard and I promise I won't complain about whatever you need me to do" he is surprised by my courage as he looks me over one more time.

"I guess I could use a kid like you around here, I don't have much help around here but your pretty short so it might be hard for you starting out just know that now kid cause I don't take kindly to quitters" he snorts looking at me again and I smile. "Thank you, thank you, thank you mister" I jump for joy glad that someone was going to give me a shot even if it was a small store at least I would have enough money to buy some bread and apples for them when I get something I listen as he tells me when I need to be there. Which he tells me is at the rising of ra (about 6:30, give or take time) I smile and nod taking home one silver coin he gave me.

I open the door and smile as the kids almost run me over when I come into the door one crying because of something I pat her head and scold her brother shaking my head. "You kids need to get a long when I'm not here you all are all you have" the older looks at me "yeah because they took our parents.." I look down knowing it was true.

"Hey it's okay we might not have families but we have each other right?" I smile trying to keep my confidence up as well as theirs. "It's going to be hard" said yumi as she looked up at me I smiled and pulled her into a hug "True but if we all work hard we will make it the pharaoh isn't a cruel person he is just going by the rules.

Yusie blurted out "Busy with what all the pharaoh does is sit on his butt all day and cause us to grief" I was shocked at what he had just said when he walks out the door I tell yumi to watch her younger brother as I step outside to talk to him. "What's going on?" I sit beside him and watch as he continues to stare at the dirt under his sandals. "It's just not fair" he finally said "The pharaoh has everything how come he can't share with all of us why do we have to suffer like this!?" I smile understanding why he is upset being the oldest out of his brothers and sisters he is trying to take on the responsibility that his father had I sigh and look up at the sky.

"I think we all suffer in one way or another, think about it the pharaoh has an entire country to look after. I'm sure it gets hard, having to deal with everything and to look after all of us" I look at him as he nods slightly still slightly upset I can tell I pat his back and whisper, "things will get better, just wait my mother always told me if you have faith anything is possible" he smiles a little and looks at me "Does that mean we will all always be together?" I am a little taken back by the question but nod as the smile comes back to my face. "I promise we will always be together nothing can tear us apart" he smiles and giggles a little satisfied with my answer as he hugs me "thank you yugi for taking us in after everything thank you" I feel him shake again a bit and I hug him slightly tighter I'm not a father person I'm just a kid still myself no matter if I am 17. I wipe his face gently with my thumb and send him back inside with the others.

I look up at the sky and look at a particular star noticing the way the colors blend together so nicely at the end of the day. I look down a bit and whisper more to myself than anyone else, "Please let me be able to do this" I let my words roll into the silence of the desert as I get up and go back inside for the night.

(Back with Atem)

I sigh as I jump onto my bed enjoying the feel of my crimson sheets I turn over to look at the top of my ceiling with it being dark in the room besides the candle it looks like nothing but black as I stare I smile a bit wondering about all the things that I could do outside of this castle. "I got it tomorrow" I think to myself and sit up going over to the balcony "Tomorrow I'll visit the city, I can't become pharaoh if I don't know my own subjects right but first I have to find the perfect outfit to go in if I walk around like this ill stick out like a sore thumb." I think for a minute and go over to my clothes picking out something and taking off the crimson streaks on the side with some scissors making sure to only cut the red string that mended the two materials together.

I take the cloths and go into my bathroom putting it on "hmm something is still missing this looks a little too out of the ordinary." I think again and snap my fingers and go get a plain cape that my father had given me last year for my birthday and take it into the bathroom looking at it to think of an idea I take the scissors and cut the clasp off since it has the symbol of my family on it and cut it a bit at the bottom making it look warn. "That should work I'm sure someone would just think I took care of the color" I say to myself quietly just in case someone else comes into my room.

After about five minutes or so I finish and smirk at myself in the mirror "dang I'm good" I look myself over making sure I didn't miss anything before taking them off and putting them in a special spot in the back of my closet knowing someone would come in and set out some cloths for me in the morning and I didn't want them to see the cloths and go tell my father.

I smile and get back into bed my eyes falling a bit knowing I'm a bit sleepy from all of the meetings today but that doesn't stop the smirk that starts to form across my face. "This is going to be an awesome experience" I yawn a bit and pull the covers up past my shoulders and mumble.

"It beats having to be here all the time, it feels like a" I pause yawning again as my eyes close "like a prison more than a palace. I finally settle down enough to notice a weird feeling in my stomach call it excitement for what is to come at ra's first light I reach my hand over and grab the candle and blows it out watching the line of smoke drift off into the air as my eyes close.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up early stretching my legs wincing when I get a slight cramp from sleeping in a little crowded over bed. I sit up and try to move without waking anyone up and creep over to the closet getting some of the cloths I have and quickly move into the biggest room looking out the small window moving the torn cloth that is in the way so the light from the sun comes in. "Well it seems like today will be an alright day" I sit by the door and put on my sandals slipping out the door quickly to go over to the chickens we had been taking care of grabbing a few eggs. "Hang in there guys I'll go get some feed today while I'm in town" I sigh a bit hoping as I walk back to the house and puts the eggs in a small basket on the counter with a note for the kids knowing the oldest could cook them.

"Well" I sigh and look out putting on a little piece of cloth that I use to protect my shoulders from the sun I turn to the room one last time to make sure none of them run out before walking out the door closing it so it won't wake any of them up and start my walk from our little hut into town.

(With Atem)

I smirk and sneak around the side of the garden using the bushes to hide most of my body hoping no one saw my hair. I get on the ground and push against the bricks trying to find the one I'm looking for after a minute I smile as one of the bricks slide out I lay on my back and slide out easily using a vine I put there yesterday to move the rest of my body out. "There" I whisper still being quiet not wanting to try my luck I hide put on the cape and smirk walking into town my eyes widen a bit at the scene in front of me.

It wasn't anything like what I thought it would be I continue walking the more I walk the more I'm concerned about what I'm seeing. "Father wouldn't let something like this happen" I whisper to myself as some sand gets kicked up by the wind I hide my face so it doesn't get into my eyes stopping for a moment until it passes and continues. "Ugh!" I almost fall over but regain my balance "I-I'm sorry" I look down and a little girl is crying I feel a bit strange as I get down on one knee and check the child making sure she isn't hurt. "Are you alright?" when she only cries harder I become a bit frantic wondering what is the matter as I look around for her parents but no one steps forward to claim the small girl.

I sigh and brush the bit of sand off the girls dress "Don't cry I'll help you alright?" she looks up to me amazed that I said anything to her which made a strange though go through my mind "I wonder if people are all this cold" I look around and then back at her. "Are you lost?" I try to figure out she nods slightly and I nod back and take her hand and walk through the town asking people if they know the girl or maybe know who her parents are. With no luck we continue walking my patience with these rude wearing thin.

(With Yugi)

I sigh and smile giving someone else some change as the old man smiles "Your catching on really fast actually kid not bad" he says watching the people walk past us I hear him sigh "Alright kid it's time to teach you something else" he motions me to follow him into the back where there are a lot of items and random papers. "Alright kid this is all our stock for right now, more stock comes in every two days or so as long as there isn't a sand storm or change in the weather. Your job will be to assist the customers, and stock all the things in the store. If someone ever wants to come back here before you let them you come get me and I will stand watch over them while you stand out there " I look as he points behind the stand and nod. "I understand" I say smiling he nods and leaves me to my work I stretch and start grabbing things out of the boxes and puts them up making sure to look at the tags he pointed out to me to put the things together. I hear someone scream and take a piece out from behind the fabric between me and the front I see an old man yelling at something that I can't see the old man looks irritated so I come out and my eyes widen to see a little girl crying on the ground her dress covered in sand. I look up to see something I couldn't believe it was a man that looked like me like me except for his skin tone and his hair was a bit different.

I look at the old man he crosses his arms in front of him. "Hey leave the kid alone it wasn't anything it's just an apple" I hear the man scream at the stand operator he snorts at the man and I see a glare in his eyes as the man screams back. "Someone has to pay for that you street punk!" I grit my teeth and walk out the old man's eyes on me as I walk out and help the little girl up.

"What are you doing runt!?" he looks at me I ignore him and smile at the girl wiping off her face with my thumb. "It's okay here" I take an apple from in a pouch in my pocket and she smiles taking it and eating it. I stand back up and glare at the man. "You have no right to treat a child in such a way you're an adult not and before you call someone a street punk you should look at yourself" he glares at me and the other man stares at me.

(Atem)

My eyes widen a young man steeped out and helped the girl that I was trying to defend It actually felt good to see someone that gave a damn about someone other than their self in this city. I growl slightly as the man starts to scream at the younger man feeling my blood boil I grab him by his shirt and force him to look into my crimson eyes. "Listen here you worm, I won't give you another warning you leave them alone and apologize to this man" I point at the little version of myself not really thinking about the similarities about our looks. He stares at me for a minute or two then looks at them both with a huge sigh he nods and apologizes "But you still owe me for the apple" he declares and looks at atem knowing his request wasn't unreasonable atem put his hand against his pouch and gave the man a coin he takes it and nods as atem lets him go and he goes back to his stand at least slightly content.

I smile at the girl on the ground "Are you alright?" I bend down and take a look at her to make sure she is fine before looking at the young man beside her. "Thank you" I look at him for the first time my eyes widen slightly. He looks so much like me it's unrealistic, his hair is spiked like mine and we have the same bangs the differences would be our skin tone and the fact that I have a spike of blond doing up my hair that he doesn't have our eyes are different as well his is a beautiful purple honestly they reminded me of a jew on one of the rings my father wear. Mine are a crimson, I see him staring at me with a strange expression on his face and I start to wonder if something is the matter. "Is there something wrong?" he shakes his head "No I was just taken back by the fact you look so much like me is all. Oh are you two both alright?" I nod and help the girl up.

"I'm actually trying to help this girl find her parents she bumped into me near the center of town we have been walking around trying to find them" I watch as he looks at the girl and he kneels down to her eye level. "What do your parents look like?" she thinks for a minute and digs into her pocket and hands the man a little piece of papyrus paper I see him look at it as he stands up and hands me the paper it was a painting of a family it wasn't that badly done either whoever had made this knew what he was doing he put detail into it. "That must be them" I hear him say as I look back to him on "I'm sorry to ask because we just meet but could you help me? I don't know that much about this area" I say which he raises his eyebrow in surprise. "You look like you're from around here and you don't know?" I nod and he shakes his head but smiles "Sure I don't mind helping you, oh before I forget my name is yugi" he announces as he offers his hand I smile and take his hand shaking it "m..my name is y..yami" I say hoping it sounds like a normal name.

He smiles at me and nods "Alright yami let's see if we can help this girl" he takes her hand and nods to the old man explain what he is going to do the man smiles and gives him his little pay for today and yugi waves as we walk down the streets. "I'm familiar with this place but I haven't seen these people before so I'm not too sure were to start" I hear him say I sigh a bit knowing I won't get much exploring done today but smiles. "Well we have some where to start right?" yugi looks at me and nods "If anything I would bet that they live somewhere around were I do and if that is true it's going to be a little bit of a walk" he leads us up a small path marked by some huge rocks here and there that looked like it was an attempt to make a small path the sand was a bit more packed down from people traveling along this way than in other places I noticed but I keep my thoughts to myself including the ones about the boy named yugi. He seemed so different than the others in this city it was almost refreshing to be around him. "Hey yami" I hear him call and I walk over to them not knowing I was standing in one spot "yes?" I ask as he points to the huts in front of us. "This is the place it is possible that her parents live somewhere around here so let's split up you take her and I will go around the other way and ask about her." I nod knowing that would get this done a bit faster and take her.

(**Around midday)**

The sun was starting to go down I knew we didn't have long and she was getting tired I sighed and picked her up resting her on my back so she could rest her feet as I continue walking. I look up to see yugi smiling at me as he runs over I look a bit confused is this really a time to be happy I keep the though in my head as he gets up to us and pants a bit. "S..sorry" he pants "I have good news though" he takes a breath to help his breathing and smiles. "I think I found them they said they were looking for their daughter and I know the woman looked like the one in the painting that the girl showed us" I smile and use my free arm to hug yugi "this is great thank you yugi" I smile not noticing the blush that starts to crawl over yugi's cheeks.

"N..no problem" he says when I let him go and he smacks his cheeks to make his color come back to normal. "Come on I'll show you were they are" I follow as he leads us down another path past about four of five houses and stops at one that is plain like the others but the roof is made of some kind of different material it is a slight red color a woman comes out and smiles. "Oh thank goodness" she rushes over to me and takes the child off my back. I'm a little hesitant not knowing for sure if this woman really was the girl we were looking for but when the girl smiles and cries in her arms I got the feeling we found the place. The woman hugged yugi and I "Thank you both so much for finding my little girl for me I was so worried" she cried a bit onto my shoulder I felt a bit strange I've never had to deal with a woman crying but I smiled to reassure her that everything was fine. She apologized but told us she had no reward she could give us we both smiled and shook our heads "we don't need anything we were happy to help" yugi announced I smile and nod in agreement to his words the woman smiled and took the child back into her house and came out and gave us both a loaf of bread wrapped in a soaked paper which I would guess was to keep it from burning us. "This isn't much but it's the most I have" she bowed and thanked us again.

We left the house and walked a little munching on the bread she gave us. "the woman was really nice" yugi smiled a and looked over at me. "Yeah she was I'm glad everything worked out" well almost everything I sigh yugi notices and stops "what's wrong?" he asks a bit worried I look at him "o..oh it's nothing I'm just sad I didn't get to look around town very much today" he smiles at me and nods "hey I have an idea the old man was going to give me a day off there isn't much to see but if you really want to I'll show you around" I look at him my eyes widened a little "a..are you sure?" he nods not thinking anything of it.

"yes I'm sure oh and if you would like you could stay with me tonight I mean if you would like to there isn't much room but we do have plenty of blankets we can spread out in the living area" I blink but smile at his kindness. "I'm a stranger and you're going to let me stay in your home?" I question wondering if the little one really understands what I'm trying to say. "I was taught to be kind to people, yes you're a stranger but you're not bad besides it's getting late it'll start getting really cold I couldn't see you off in this" I smile at his kindness as we continue walking until we get to a house. "well this is it I know it's not much but it's our home" I blink when he says we getting a bit worried the little one might have someone but blinks at my own though. "Why would that matter? I just met yugi it's not like that right?" I wonder to myself as I see children jump yugi in the door way and all at once start talking yugi trying to settle them down but seeming to have a time I offer to help but the kids just look at me like I'm going to steal their toys I sigh and sit by a fire place and wait for them all to come over yugi sits by me on one side and a little girl sits on the other. Yugi called her yumi, and the two older boys are jash and zack.

They all look at me and I look back "So who are you?" zack asks I look at him "My name is a..i stop myself "I mean yami" I nod and yugi pulls out the warmed up bread he saved and passes it out to them breaking off even pieces so they all have an equal amount.

(**about an hour later)**

I smile watching the kids sleep as yugi puts out the fire and smiles "well that's taken care of "he crawls under the blankets and offers me some I get under them and look at the ceiling "you know if you have never been into the city where have you been all this time?" I am a bit worried about how to respond "let's just say I lived a very sheltered life and leave it at that" I smile and pat his head he nods understanding and closes his eyes "goodnight yami" he yawns and snuggles against me as the others do to him for extra warmth I blink but let him and smile "goodnight yugi" I close my eyes and wrap the blanket a bit closer behind me to keep the air out and fall asleep myself.


End file.
